View Full Version : I need a video card.
I was hoping some the tech-savvy people here can help me pick out a nice video card that fits into a PCI slot, not PCI Express. Something not over US$250 is what I'm looking for. I'm starting to play alot of games on the PC but the integrated video that my PC brings isn't cutting it anymore. Well, thanks in advance.
Are you sure you don't mean AGP slot? Here's something that'll fit your budget almost perfect: http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-2295-x-x-x
Also, what is your CPU, just for reference
PCI videocard oh man not sure but they don't make those anymore hun! AGP slot yes if you are thinking there is no more room in your agp slot don't worry you take that out and put the new one in.
I hope for you it isn't on board without an agp slot cause you won't find a pci videocard.
Smily0012
07-22-2005, 15:24
Yes, there are only two types of connections that they now make for the GPUs which is AGP and the PCIe(express). A good card to get for $300 would be a ATI x800 XL or for $200 you can get just a regular GeForce 6800. You can go on ebay and get lucky and buy a card cheaper.
soldier one
07-22-2005, 16:24
if you want to play the new games like doom 3 or battlefeild then you need at least a ATI 8500 or a Gforse 3/ti series. you also might want some ram if the games are slow.
Since I was too sure what a AGP slot looked like, I looked up the diagram for my motherboard on the internets. From what I can see, theres no AGP slot present. I'd put the picture up but it seems like Photobucket is "experiencing issues". My CPU, ishould, is a 630 Pentium 4 HT @ 3.0 and I have a gig of RAM, soldier one. It's definitely the video card that's making my games lag.
I could have sworn they still made PCI videocards of their PCIe counterparts. That really blows. So I'm gonna probably have to find an old, outdated videocard to use unless I change my motherboard. Anything is better than this integrated video though. :(
I'm not sure, but I think even if they made them it would hardly have enough bandwidth to work decently!
AGP slots are a little farther back on the motherboard than the PCI slots. I think you would have a hard time finding PCI graphics cards though. Try http://imageshack.us for the photo, they're good too.
Might want to save the money up and get a new MoBo with a PCI-e slot or at least an AGP slot... A really good mobo wont set you back too far out of your budget and you may need one... Doesnt sound like your system was really built for gaming.
Might want to save the money up and get a new MoBo with a PCI-e slot or at least an AGP slot... A really good mobo wont set you back too far out of your budget and you may need one... Doesnt sound like your system was really built for gaming. Just make sure it's the same socket as the one you got now or you're gonna have to rebuy your proccesor as well! I would also do this!
The next gaming system I build is definatly going to use Athlon 64. They are faster, cheaper, run cooler, and take less energy. I run a 2.53Ghz P4 and my PC gaming is fine (for now)
Smily0012
07-22-2005, 23:20
Here is how each one looks like.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/images/pic-agp-pcie-cards.jpg
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/images/pic-agp-pcie.jpg
The regular PCI looks almost the same as the PCIe exept that its turned around the other way around. More or less the ends are just on the opposite sides. What I mean is the small end is on the right in a PCIe while its on the left for a regular PCI.
Here is how each one looks like.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/images/pic-agp-pcie-cards.jpg
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/images/pic-agp-pcie.jpg
The regular PCI looks almost the same as the PCIe exept that its turned around the other way around. More or less the ends are just on the opposite sides. What I mean is the small end is on the right in a PCIe while its on the left for a regular PCI.
I've never seen a hammer in my computer before lol. You might want to save them and upload them to imageshack.us or photobucket
MassaCh13f
07-23-2005, 00:10
There is one PCI video card that i can think of thats kind of ok. That's the ATI Radeon 9200. Also if your motherboard can support a 630 Pentium 4 HT 3.0Ghz, then it must have an AGP slot. Look harder. It's a brown slot, it's shorter and farther in than the white PCI slots.
That's exactly what I thought. I checked, then I checked the diagram just in case and it doesn't.
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1300/c003615738lg.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)
Any good motherboards that fit my budget?
MassaCh13f
07-23-2005, 00:34
Well that doesn't seem to have a AGP slot but check out http://www.pricewatch.com/ they have all kinds of PC components including motherboards and video cards, but you have to be careful because some of them are complete crap.
Smily0012
07-23-2005, 00:40
Well this can really mess up your whole computer. By buying a new motherboard it will cost you lots of money. I dont suggest you go out and buy one. There are cheap ones out there but then most likely you wont be able to put everything you have in your computer. On top of that a good one costs around 600. You might as well just wait and buy a new computer if your going to change all of that. Or maybe you can build a new one your self.
$600 for a motherboard are you kidding me? I'm sure you can find one for the same socket and RAM type for well under $200 if not under $100 that includes an AGP slot. If you are going to invest in a new motherboard though, I'd try for a PCI-e slot instead, as that is the future of the Video Cards.
Smily0012
07-23-2005, 00:46
Yeah but you dont want to buy something thats only going to last you for a year. You want something thats going to last you for 3-5 years.
I've just never seen a motherboard that costs $600. Do you have a link?
Smily0012
07-23-2005, 01:42
I made a call to Sony on what they suggested, they said that most motherboards cost around that price of you want to keep everything on your computer as it is. My computer is packed with a whole bunch of stuff. Lots of video cards and sound cards.
MassaCh13f
07-23-2005, 01:57
Check this out: http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-15351-2295-x-x-x
It's a Gamespot guide to the best AGP cards under $200
DeputyDon
07-23-2005, 04:17
I have a PCI video card that I bought not that long ago at all. It was like only $100. It is a 64Mb Nvidia GeForce 4. I got that at bestbuy. It sucks, but most bestbuys still sell PCI video cards.
If you want to play the latest games, you might as well completely upgrade your computer so you can use AGP or PCI Express. Since PCI sucks anyways.
Smily0012
07-23-2005, 04:31
The best would be just to waot like 3-6months and then build your own computer. IT might cost you around $1000 dollars all thougheter but if you use the parts from your old computer it will reduce the price.
Building a new computer is out of the question. Like I said, I'm not very tech-savvy. Not that I think it'll be hard, I'm sure it's pretty easy. It's just that I think I might break something important. I'll leave that to the professionals at the computer shop.
Any suggestions to a PCI video card are still welcome. As I recall, ATI still made 9800 PCI cards, right? And I'm not too sure, but I think my cousin bought a X600 PCI because he installed it on a computer without PCIe and I don't think he upgraded. :? Thanks, again.
MassaCh13f
07-23-2005, 22:53
I don't know about the 9800 but I do know that they make a PCI 9200 and you can find it at a Best Buy of Fry's, and it's a pretty decent card, and under $100 I think.
But heres a link I found for the 9250 with 256 DDR. It's $130. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6832779&type=product&id=1093468042109
Smily0012
07-23-2005, 23:16
They for sure dont have a 9800 PCI slot, but I think the 9250 does. Most games will play good with this cards.
MassaCh13f
07-23-2005, 23:24
yea the 9250 is pretty good with most of today's games and I just posted a link to Best Buy where they have the PCI version for $130. I think it's the best card you can get for PCI
They for sure dont have a 9800 PCI slot, but I think the 9250 does. Crap. I was too hopeful. I still think there has to be a better card out there I mean because PCIe is a relatively new interface for video cards... right?
UPDATE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145087
Found this card on Newegg where I also saw the 9250. This one seems to be the better card. I won't take the reviewer's word for it though. What do you guys think?
I also suggest getting a new MB, I dont think there are any PCI cards that will run todays games well ( or at all)
As for building a pc, I just did it for the 1st time and it wasnt hard at all.
I bought an Asus AV8 deluxe MB for $149 and an AMD64 939 socket 3200+ for $240
(canadian Prices) a few months ago. I stayed with AGP because a few months before that i bought and 1ll in wonder 9800 pro for $299 and didnt want to give up on that yet before moving onto PCI-E
I had no clue on where evrything went at 1st, but when you just look at it, its pretty simple, hookin your cards, make sure you get power to everything,hook up the drives, only hard part was connecting the power button, but it tells you in the manual where to connect all th elittle cords to.
hoverbike
07-27-2005, 18:17
I've just never seen a motherboard that costs $600. Do you have a link?
I have seen Motherboards cost that much before. Go to www.motherboards.org and find a Mobo that can hold 16 GB of RAM and they cost over $600.
Future proof, but not worth the purchase I geuss. By the time we need that much ram we probably have different sockets and newer expansion slots like agp-e or something.
Good for people who need it like dvd editing(and still be able to use your instant messenger) and such, but not for the average home user.
I had decided on the 9250, but since the future IS PCI Express, then I chose a different motherboard. My budget currently stands at nothing over $400. I chose a nice Gigabyte mobo and I think I made a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813128247
As for a video card, I chose MSI's 6600GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127147
Does the motherboard need to have two PCI Express x16 slots to be able to run two video cards with SLI? What's the difference between PCIe x16 and PCIe x1 anyway?
Let me know what you guys think on the mobo and card and thanks again for your help.
Euh hate to tell you, but you will probably also need a new proccesor that fits that motherboard! For 400$ a mobo videocard and cpu I would recommend this setup:
mobo: 90$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1219243&CatId=1569
has 4 dimm slots, 3 pci slots, 2 pci-e 1x slots, 1 pci-e 16x slot, giabit land built in.
cpu: 147$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1366603
videocard: 130$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1118443&CatId=0
My friend has a 6600 and can play hlČ cs:s etc on max settings and decent frame rate and if you lower the anti aliasing you should get 60-80 fps on it wich is alot!
He does has a 3500+ instead of 3000+ ...
I don't need a new CPU, my CPU fits into that mobo. Socket T (LGA 775) P4 HT @ 3.0GHz is the one I have on this PC.
Oke I didn't check your mobo, but I was assuming it was a socket 939 because you don't see many other boards with other sockets with pci-e.
Anyway yeah nice mobo a 6600GT should be perfect for this-gen-gaming.
Cool, the question remains though, do I need two PCI Express x16 slots to be able to use SLI on two 6600GTs? Or do the PCIe x1 slots work too?
Is installing a video card into a notebook and desktop the same as just removing the cover, taking out the old video card, put the new one in, and recover it or is there something else you have to do for putting it in a notebook?
NationStater
09-19-2005, 15:08
Here are your choices for decent PCI video cards.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1603&Nav=|c:319|&Sort=0&Recs=10
Store managers detail PS3 failure rate at less than 1%
Link: http://www.ripten.com/?p=374
Ultima X
07-04-2007, 20:42
I shall do this